What's the Starting Weight ?
And;
What's the Starting Flex like ? (How does it compare to say a Kialoa shaft - I assume the starting flex is pretty "flexy".

The starting weight would you believe is (see pic below) about 320 Grams. My C4 full carbon which is light as is 500 grams. length is about 6'6. That's pretty good for wood. The flex is not too bad as there is 2 layers of Innegra fabric in between the 9 layers of laminated timber.

The glass will add weight but I am going to reduce the shaft quite a bit as I have done a few since I made this time and learnt a bit more. The real starting weight I would estimate will be about 300 grams. How much weight I add will depend upon neatness and resin content.

The cloth I am glassing the back side of the shaft and power face of the blade with is below also in the pic. It's very strong and the fibreglass matrix it is woven into will also create strength.

Cool, can't wait for the results !

Shame you couldn't get yourself some of this to use on it.. .. It's the most Hi-Tech carbon fiber money can buy.. It's what RedBull use on their F1 cars.

DJ

I found a mob out of the states that sleave weaves in lots of different combinations. Not sure if I have the link any more but it would make laminating easier and keep weight down. Do you use peel ply?

CMC said...

Nah not bagging the shaft or would be.

If this works at all or is even promising I have access to a great pump for the next one. I thick I will use the pump for laminating the shafts in the next versions, the clamps actually created low spots especially with the balsa in the lamination. I have thought about the bending block inside of the bag and it would be easier than the clamps.

This is just to satisfy curiosity, not to sell. I enjoy paddling and making stuff for myself and my friends, so far much of it has been rough as hessian undies as I am never sure if it will even work so no point spending too much time on aesthetics and more emphasis on weight.

Trying to find ways to make these easier as they do take some time and my wife hates the dust in the garage.

cmc, don't clamp directly to to the shaft, grab some timber packers or clamping blocks for each side of the shaft, at the full lenght of the shaft would be better. you won't dent the shaft and you will get more value out of each clamp as the timber block spreads the clamp pressure more
cheers

CMC said...

laceys lane said...

CMC said...

Nah not bagging the shaft or would be.

If this works at all or is even promising I have access to a great pump for the next one. I thick I will use the pump for laminating the shafts in the next versions, the clamps actually created low spots especially with the balsa in the lamination. I have thought about the bending block inside of the bag and it would be easier than the clamps.

This is just to satisfy curiosity, not to sell. I enjoy paddling and making stuff for myself and my friends, so far much of it has been rough as hessian undies as I am never sure if it will even work so no point spending too much time on aesthetics and more emphasis on weight.

Trying to find ways to make these easier as they do take some time and my wife hates the dust in the garage.

cmc, don't clamp directly to to the shaft, grab some timber packers or clamping blocks for each side of the shaft, at the full lenght of the shaft would be better. you won't dent the shaft and you will get more value out of each clamp as the timber block spreads the clamp pressure more
cheers

Yeah been doing that but was limited by the width of the bench, bending block and the size of G Clamp to the thickness of the packing timber under the clamps. Probably need more clamps for SUP shafts also. Seems all too hard, vacuum bag will be 1/4 the work, neater and be a better lamination all round resulting in less trimming for the shaft before rounding.

A Band saw, belt sander, router and an electric planer would be great as well.

i've got clamps, belt sander, router, electric planer and two hands with 30 years of chippie ing in um

you really shouldn't be working on my new paddle on sunday

liking it

Very nice !! If the resulting product is good, you might even have a marketable product.

I'm guessing Carbon isn't available in Opaque or clear !? Carbon is known to be black....

The squiggle stripes do look good though... Kelly Slater / Al Merrick circa early 90's. Not sure why that fad disappeared... seems to have good structural merit...

DavidJohn said...

Shame you couldn't get yourself some of this to use on it.. .. It's the most Hi-Tech carbon fiber money can buy.. It's what RedBull use on their F1 cars.

DJ

When you look at carbon all you can see is the tow input ,weave and the approximate density (weight) The pictured peice looks like 20K (20,000 filaments per bunch) plain weave (over 1 /under 1) and about 200grams/square metre (cloth only) Im sure that F1 teams would use unidirectional fibres and not wovens as the properties are often better.
other than that the best Toray(Japanese) carbon fibre is T-1000 , mostly fabricators have been using T-700 after progressing from T-300 in the early days

Unidirectional fibres would be stronger and stiffer lengthwise but you would need something to stop it splitting lengthwise(fibres 90 deg across or a pair at 45) , and if you are using wet resins versus prepregs (you must or the Styrofoam will melt !) then you need to hold the fibres in place and what you end up with is woven glass fibre. The only lighter way would be lighter carbon fabrics (beware heat) or s-glass ($$$) there is a lot of wasted weight in polyester finishes IMO and the sanded primer look is trying to get the most out of the lightest layup.

ps woods and bamboo etc are uni-directional (strength and stiffness are only improved in the one [most important] direction)

Todays Instalment:

Yesterday was front side work. Pics as below with front of blade glassed in 4oz. You can see a line around the paddle, I used fin rovings for the edge as they are super strong and help avoid damage to your paddle.

At the very bottom you can see this mornings progression. Trimmed back the edges and sanded the edge of the rovings, glass and carbon back to a tuned approx 1/8" edge around the blade.

So far have flexed the whole paddle and the blade being so thin and light has a great flex that would feel amazing with the return from the carbon. Flexing the shaft alone feels nice and stiff, early results are telling me that the carbon has substantially increased stiffness while not really increasing weight.

Negatives are being impatient with limited time I did not talc my forearms or wear a long sleeve shirt so I will itching all day. Funny thing is I kind of like it, I love the fumes and dust. Even @ 12 I was cleaning shaping bays, fixing dings, wetrubbing and cutting out decals just to be near this stuff. Surfers were not my heroes, surfboard factory guys were....... And still are.









P.S Pics of paddle are pre-filler coat and only pre-sanded. Will put a filler on it day to bring back a nice shine.

I think a "C-Section" of carbon around the shaft is perfect.... Even an "O-Section" right around would be fine.

Looking good !

CMC said...

How I am going to give this back to Dan?????

Tell him you broke it when you were testing it.